


To Not See One's Own Worth

by Rellanka



Series: A Year Of Cloudy Skies [50]
Category: Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Regency, Angst with a Happy Ending, Arranged Marriage, Jealousy, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:41:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24729124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rellanka/pseuds/Rellanka
Summary: To bejealous:(adjective)Fiercely protective or vigilant of one's rights or possessions.
Relationships: Rufus Shinra/Cloud Strife
Series: A Year Of Cloudy Skies [50]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1697269
Comments: 3
Kudos: 185





	To Not See One's Own Worth

“You knew who I was when you married me.” Rufus drawled into the silence and privacy of their bedroom, seemingly uncaring about how unacceptable his behavior today was to Cloud. 

“I didn’t, actually. Remember how ours was an arranged marriage?” Cloud snapped back, thoroughly unimpressed and more than a little fed up with his husband. 

He didn’t even really know why Rufus had approached Cloud’s mother shortly after the death of his own father to make arrangements to marry Cloud in a quick and quiet fashion. Certainly, Cloud had brought very little wealth to add to Rufus’s own- not that the arrogant man had needed it with his already overflowing fortune. After Cloud’s father had run off and abandoned both wife and son, his father’s gambling debts had quickly swallowed any funds his mother had been smart enough to put aside. It hadn’t been a secret that the Strife’s were destitute, and their relationships had largely become tatters of what it once was. With no money and no positive influence to offer, months later Cloud was still trying to figure out what his husband had gained with the whole transaction. 

And he would have to figure it out himself, because his husband became uncharacteristically silent and solemn whenever he asked. 

Five months of marriage, and Cloud still felt like he didn’t know the man. Sure, he had had a few run-ins with Rufus before the courtship and the marriage. Short, explosive encounters that Cloud often left silently fuming, and sometimes outright cursing. Well, the encounters were explosive on Cloud’s end, at least. Rufus often left them completely composed and seemingly amused by the show that Cloud had been putting on for him. 

None of them were enough to give Cloud a real idea as to who his husband was, and why he had wanted Cloud for a spouse, out of **all** of his many options. 

But the one thing Cloud knew of his husband with certainty was that Rufus could be very possessive of his things. 

Even now, his husband confirmed this himself as he said, “You know me well enough to know that I am unhappy when you spend an overly large amount of time with Lieutenant General Fair.” 

Cloud glared at his husband, enraged anew by the idea that the man thought Cloud was another possession he could own. 

“Zack’s a friend.” Cloud bit out finally through gritted teeth, “A dear one. I am not going to lose his friendship just because you don’t want to share your **toys**.” 

Rufus went still and silent in front of him, his eyes becoming flint as he asked quietly, “A toy. That’s how you think I view you?”

Cloud suddenly felt a trickle of nerves shoot down his spine, as if warning him that he didn’t want to continue down this path much further, lest his husband reveal more than he was currently equipped to handle. 

“Of course I do.” He said, shaking off the feeling and casting it aside as a ridiculous spur of fantastical nonsense, “What else am I supposed to think when you regard every unmarried man that comes within five feet of me with suspicion and jealousy?” 

“I regard those men the way that I do because many of them **do** desire quite a bit more than friendship with you, a fact that you are as blind to as you are blind to your own beauty. If you view that as me treating you as my toy, perhaps that’s merely because you have always been comfortable assuming the worst of me. You think of me as objectifying you, instead of me treasuring being able to call you my spouse and being willing to defend my position as your husband from all who would seek to rest that title from me.” Rufus said, every word spoken slowly and carefully as he stared directly into Cloud’s ever-widening gaze. 

Feeling several things that he couldn’t quite put a name to at the weight of Rufus’s words and his gaze on his, Cloud finally managed to break the connection between them to look at anywhere but at his husband. 

“I’m not- I’m not nearly as much of a commodity as you seem to think. There’s definitely not a line of men wanting to break down your door to cart me off into the night. I’ve just been incredibly lucky when it comes to gaining close friendships. Mostly due to Zack’s help.” He muttered, avoiding his husband’s gaze and wishing desperately that he could somehow be transported somewhere far, far away from where he was standing. He was feeling- far too much, more than he thought he would when he began this conversation. Definitely more positive, fluttering emotions than he’d ever had an idea were within him for his husband. 

With the way that he was very determinedly **not** looking at his husband, Cloud didn’t quiet see the man sigh, but he could hear it. 

“You are worth far more than you let yourself realize- but let’s not argue the matter any longer tonight. The duty of convincing you of how lovely you are is one that I’m more than willing to spend the rest of my life performing, to the very best of my capabilities.” 

Drawing Cloud into a soft kiss, the argument between them was forgotten as Rufus set about doing just that.


End file.
